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                     Cosi fan tutte (6)

     I drove to Manchester NH this morning, and on the way,
while I was driving, I reviewed my thoughts about Cosi fan
tutte.  I was embarrassed by the carelessness of my account
of Ferrando's arias. "nostro tesoro" in  Un' aura amorosa is
non specific and may refer to the betrothed or to any other
object of erotic affection.

     In the aria:

       FERRANDO
       Tradito, schernito
       Dal perfido cor,
       Io sento che ancora
       Quest'alma l'adora,
       Io sento per essa
       Le voci d'amor.

the one who is adored is clearly the betrothed, and not die
Andere.

     With this correction it becomes necessary to rely on the
simulated passion of Ferrando's wooing of Fiordiligi and
Guglielmo's wooing of Dorabella to support the thesis that
even feigned affection for the other woman was a betrayal of
the betrothed, and that that feigned affection was in fact a
compounded betrayal of trust.

     I would argue that one cannot feign affection without
succumbing to it, that at some point, feigned affection must
become real affection, and that both Ferrando and Guglielmo
have left that point far behind when they pretend to have
poisoned themselves in order to secure the love of the other
girl.

     However that may be, the pretended love of the Albanians
raises the issue of loyalty and truthfulness about which Don
Alfonso and his two protegees seem to entertain double
standards.  While the theme of the opera is the truthfulness
of the women's declarations of fidelity, the men have no
compunctions about disguise and impersonation, no reluctance
at uttering falsehoods, and no aversion to false declarations
of affection. I suspect that DaPonte's potential audience was
not unanimous in its support of such permissiveness with
respect to the truth. I am reminded of Papageno's touchingly
naive and trusting question: "Mein Kind, was werden wir nun
sprechen?"  To which Pamina responds melodiously and with memorable
decisiveness: "Die Wahrheit, die Wahrheit, sei sie auch Verbrechen."
(My child, what will we say now? Truth, truth, even though it
incriminate.) Arguably however, DaPonte honors truth not by
declamation but by dramatic revelation, as when the dame ferraresi
capitulate to the Albanians or when the Albanians discard their
disguise and reappear as Ferrando and Guglielmo.

     In reflecting on the humanity of this opera, I am impressed
and touched by the way in which it takes up the theme of generosity,
forgiveness and agapic (as distinct from erotic) love, a theme
which is pronounced with such wonderful eloquence and harmony in
Sarastro's aria in the Magic Flute:
 
         In diesen heil'gen Hallen
         Kennt man die Rache nicht,
         Und ist ein Mensch gefallen,
         Fuehrt Liebe ihn zur Pflicht.
         Dann wandelt er an Freundes Hand
         Vergnuegt und froh in's bess're Land.
        
         In diesen heil'gen Mauern,
         Wo Mensch den Menschen liebt,
         Kann kein Verraeter lauern,
         Weil man dem Feind vergibt.
         Wen solche Lehren nicht erfreun,
         Verdienet nicht ein Mensch zu sein.

This ideal of love, forgiveness, harmony, reconciliation
is the apotheosis not only of the Magic Flute and Cosi fan tutte,
but also of the Abduction, Figaro, and Clemenza di Tito.
Don Giovanni is the important exception.

     It is worth noting how Cosi fan tutte represents a
confluence of the cultural cross-currents of the time.
Underlying its plot is the Enlightenment presumption that
human problems are soluble by reason, and that reason
requires the discovery of the truths of nature.  Thus the
social encounter becomes a laboratory in which nature is put
to the test. The opera also mirrors the collison between an
eighteenth century perception of marriage as the
dispassionate liaison of social and political convenience on
the one hand, and on the other, the Sturm und Drang epiphany
of marriage as a sentimental sacrament of "romantic" love, as
celebrated in Goethe's Werther, and, raised to the highest
power of spiritual refinement and sophistication, in
Hoelderlin's phantasies about Diotima.


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Copyright 2006, Ernst Jochen Meyer
